Saturday, January 26, 2013

haha, no chocolate cake

I’ve
challenged myself with many different types of diet in the past. For months and
years, I lasted on diets that were low-fat/calorie, low-carb, focused on macro
foods or completely avoided junk food. I went vegetarian/vegan for a few months
before I had health implications. And I ate raw food for half a week – this was
a short one as I wanted to purge after drinking 3L of raw spinach soup…
probably didn’t utilise the possibilities
of raw food recipes. I went on these diets/lifestyle changes mostly to
challenge and push myself – a case of getting bored one day and being like ‘I
don’t want to eat junk food for X amount of time’. Other times it was an
attempt to be healthier, explore foods outside my comfort zone or even to lose
weight.

In
hindsight, my recent no wheat/dairy/soy/nuts diet was among the hardest, if not
the hardest, diet I’ve been on. Before I started it, I thought I’d continue to
eat as I normally do but substitute minor things. For example, I’d swap my normal
cereal and bread with GF alternatives. Since I snack on nuts daily, I’d swap
this with more fruit, hummus/carrots and GF muesli bars. Easy.

It got
difficult when I realised how these ingredients are hidden in many unsuspecting
foods, like Asian stir fries, sushi, salads, anything that has been marinated,
all takeaway food etc.

No wheat/gluten

This was the
most difficult item to cut out of my diet – I now have massive respect for celiacs
and those who are intolerant or sensitive to gluten/wheat. Obviously, gluten is
in bread, pasta, flour, cereal and other carby and processed foods. I knew
there were GF alternatives so I didn’t worry. I didn’t go too much out of my
way to get ingredients for cooking at home mainstream supermarkets stock many
GF alternatives, like pasta and cereal. The Freedom Foods brand saved me as
they had delicious cereals. Carmans has a good gluten free cereal option as
well (with nuts). I bought gluten-free flour and used it in banana bread/cake
and it wasn’t much different (see here).

When eating
out, some restaurant menus indicate which items are GF – this saved me stress
from interrogating waiting staff on how a dish is cooked. Zefferelli’s had a GF menu with pizza and pasta. In Canberra, Deeks Bakery in Pearce and Dickson
sells gluten-free baked goods. This sounded like heaven but after analysis of
their website, I realised that the majority of their products contained soy, so
I would probably only be able to eat one product – yeast, soy & dairy free
bread.

Gluten is
used as a thickener in many sauces used in salads, stir fries, marinades etc.
This made me extremely conscious of everything I ate. When I was on my diet, I
often ate from big franchises, such as Sumo Salad that has a website listing allergen
information for its salads. Smaller salad bars rarely had info on what items
were GF or knowledgeable staff on GF items. I was annoyed that I had to go to
franchises over small salad bars, because I prefer to give my buck to small
business owners over large franchises – smaller salad bars aren’t into fancy
advertising, don’t often ship ingredients across the country just to ensure ‘consistency
of quality’ and have more unique salads. I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

My
alternative to salads for lunch would be sushi rolls. Obviously I couldn’t eat soft
shell crab rolls as flour is used in the deep frying batter. I thought I’d be
fine with chicken teriyaki and beef sushi, but the meat is marinated in sauce
that has gluten. So I opted for the vegetarian options… oh except tofu (wheat
and soy), but I learnt to love avocado rolls.

Having no
gluten in my diet mean that I couldn’t eat normal stir fries – my favourite
sauces for cooking at home (oyster, soy, hoisin) all had gluten. If I was a celiac,
I’d invest in GF substitutes, which apparently exist… somewhere. It was
frustrating to go to any Asian restaurant or have stir fries at people’s
houses. Most people have no idea gluten is in many stir fry sauces so would
look at me in a dumbfounded way when I asked what was GF. I ended up
interrogating them about what sauces were used in the dish and asked if they
could replace soy sauce etc with fish sauce… oh and sometimes even fish sauce
has gluten.

Basically my
colleague who’s a celiac said something like ‘basically all you can eat is air…
but ignorance is bliss… if you don’t end up with weird side effects or in
hospital, it’s okay’.

No dairy/lactose

It wasn’t
too difficult to cut out lactose because I already avoid dairy in my normal
diet. For example, I avoid cheese (creates congestion problems) and buttery
goods. When I strictly cut out dairy, I didn’t eat cheese at work lunches,
pizza (OMG), pastries, café sweets, creamy sauces and being wary of butter or
cheese in sandwiches etc. Dairy is everywhere.

In my normal
diet, I drink soy milk. I know many people who shiver at the thought of
drinking soy. I admit – I hated it when I was young, but that’s because my only
experience of soy milk was the type from Asian supermarkets that has a strong
beany taste. Outside my diet, I usually drunk Soy Good or Soy Milky with cereal
and could barely tell the difference from normal milk.

I was always
aware there are many alternatives to ‘normal milk’ such as lactose free milk
(contains the enzyme lactase that aids people’s digestion of the lactose in
milk). There’s also almond milk, oat milk and rice milk (last one is gross in
my opinion). The range of options makes me wonder whether milk can be made from
other things – potatoes, corn? My avoidance of nuts, soy or dairy meant that
there were only two types of milk I could drink – lactose free and rice milk… I
think rice milk has a festy perfume-like taste that not even sugary cereal can
cover. Lactose free milk it was (see here).

I love
chocolate… but in the last year I over indulged in it so it was a good thing
that I avoided it. I certainly craved it at times, but would use my imagination
just to experience what it’d be like to eat it – taste, smell, texture etc. In
an earlier blog entry, I made a lactose-free hot chocolate, with dairy free
chocolate, honey and lactose free milk. It cured my cravings!

There are
also vegan cheese alternatives, including mascarpone (yay for tiramisu) and
tasty cheese.

During my
diet, I realised that lactose is a popular ‘filler’ in many many medications.
In these scenarios, I couldn’t avoid it.

No soy

In
hindsight, why on earth did I avoid soy?!?! I normally don’t eat much meat so I
get my protein from meat alternatives such as tofu, vege sausages, patties and
vegetarian meat, which unfortunately all contain soy (or wheat). As I was also
avoiding nuts, a huge source of protein was missing from my diet.

During my
diet, I often felt lethargic – I would try to create some ‘balance’ in my diet
by eating some protein. Ironically I ate chicken, chicken and chicken – eventually
I grossed myself out.

No nuts

Annoyingly,
a lot of gluten-free cereals and snack bars contain nuts. I remember spending
at least half an hour in Woolies staring at the health food section, looking at
each snack bar one by one and assessing each one according to the stupid
‘criteria’ I had – no nuts, gluten, etc. It was mentally exhausting. Out of
about 100 options, I could eat around 5.

Nuts are
also included in many vegetarian salads. It’s probably used to give the salad
protein and a nice crunchiness. I guess it provides protein that meat normally
would.

Combination of the four

Overall it
was extremely difficult. I’d often see a snack bar or salad that sounded
delicious. I’d get excited and think ‘Omg, I can actually incorporate some
flavour into my diet. Potential life saver.’ However the item would exclude
only three of the four ingredients and include something like nuts … my dreams
and hopes would be crushed again and again.

Indian food
was a gem as their sauces don’t often have gluten and it was obvious if there
was dairy (like yogurt or cream).
However, most Indian places use ghee, which is clarified butter (dairy)… but
sometimes ignorance is bliss.

When I
cooked for myself, I mostly ate salads and cooked veges – these were flavoured
with home-made citrus dressings, sesame oil or herbs/olive oil.

Ok, I feel
like I was just popping my own party balloons. It’s also like I was saying to
myself ‘here’s chocolate cake, but haha, you can’t eat it.’ The diet was
difficult to maintain as I couldn’t find enough alternatives or substitutes to
maintain enough nutrition (and a healthy weight). I was excluded from even the
smallest social events and people weren’t always accommodating or supportive.
People were itching for me to go back to ‘normal’ for their own convenience and
familiarity. But my eczema was itching 100x worse.

Overall, it
wasn’t a bad experience. I’m glad I did it because it taught me to eat cleaner
and exposed me to foods that I wouldn’t normally eat.